ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

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attitudes (bh vn s) which occupy the person with right belief namely friendship, compassion, equanimity and appreciation (pramoda).
Right knowledge is the true knowledge, which is free from doubt, opposition or hankering about the substances, their attributes and modes. Jains consider knowledge and soul to be concomitant and coexistent, as knowledge cannot exist anywhere else but in the soul. Classification of substances based on sentient and insentient shows this fact. Just knowledge is the nature of pure soul while empirical soul has this pure knowledge capability veiled / obscured by the matter karmas bonded with it. Example of sun shining and giving full or partial light depending on the absence or quantum presence between sun and earth explains this concept. Empirical soul therefore needs the assistance of other media, such as sensual organs; light etc to cognize objects while pure soul can cognize all objects with no restraints of space, time, size etc. Knowledge is right or valid if the owner of knowledge is with belief /attitude. Knowledge is of five types, namely mind base, verbal testimony (both are indirect as they are acquired by the soul with the aid of five senses and mind), clairvoyance and telepathy (both direct by soul but only of concrete objects) and omniscience or knowledge without any constraints.
The source of knowledge can be either the soul of the inquirer himself or through the sermons / lectures of others. The methods of acquiring knowledge are Pram a, Naya, Anek nta and Sy dv da.
Right conduct is the practice to give up undesirable activities of mind, body and soul and to perform activities conducive to attain the ultimate objective i.e. liberation/mokṣa. Thus conduct is right only when the practitioner has both right belief and right knowledge. C ritra or conduct is refraining from what is harmful and engagement in what is beneficial. Mah v ra has bifurcated the practice of conduct in two categories namely, r vakas / laity who are not able to devote 100% of their time on the path of purification but wish to practice it partially and rama a monks i.e. those who are committee 100% to the practice of the path of spiritual purification.
The great Jinas have described c ritra from practical point of view to consist of 5 vows (vratas), 5 Attitudes of carefulness (samitis) and 3 Attitudes of restraint (guptis). Vows are Non violence, Truthfulness, Non-stealing, Celibacy and Non-possession. Samitis / attitude of carefulness, are not to cause pain to anyone while walking (ry ), gentle and beneficial talks (bh $), carefulness in receiving alms (Aiş a), Receiving and keeping things for religious purposes carefully (d na Nikṣepa) and attending to the calls of nature in unfrequented places (utsarga). Guptis are attitudes of restraining or controlling the activities of mind (mano), speech (vacana) and body (k ya). Right conduct is divided in two categories namely r vak c ra for householders and rama c ra for ascetics.
For a lay person, a schedule of basic virtues and six essential (va yakas) duties to be performed daily are given so that the practitioner while performing worldly duties keeps the basic Jain principles in mind and avoid harmful activities.
The progress of spiritual purification is indicated as a collection of 14 stages or gasth nas showing primarily the status of deluding (Mohan ya) karma up to 12th stage and then of non obscuring karmas in 13th stages and total absence of all karmas in the 14th stage. A beautiful part of this mysticism of Jains is that even from the 11th stage, the mendicant can fall down to first stage if he is not practicing annihilation of karmas from the beginning.
Another peculiarity of Jain conduct is to celebrate death as a festival as it is an event when the soul leaves the old body to take up a new body (depending on its karmas and state at the time of death). Five types of death are discussed with the highest one being of an omniscient, which after leaving his present body does not take any new body and hence gets out of the transmigration cycle.
As with any old religion, over a period of time, certain amount of laxity in ethical practices crept in Jainism as well, giving rise to different sects. These improvisations keep the religion live while the practicing principles, i.e. to perform daily essentials or adherence to vows get adjusted to suit the
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0